It was a breezy spring afternoon when I walked home from school back then, at april 21th to be exact, after sitting through the whole entire day of school, I finally manage to catch a break and went home, physics were boring and so does 3 hours of math, Monday is kiterally the worst day! I decided to walk home from school like usual but on my way home I just realized something
"Its Sayuri-chan's birthday tommorow!" I gasped as I walked home
I quickly thought of the plans the class and I had made for her surprised party tommorow, and I'm in charge for the birthday cake, and to this moment I still havent bought (or made) the cake! After that, took a sharp 180° turn and dashed to the nearest bakery in Akihabara for the cake.
"it doesn't have to be big, as long as its a cake for her to blow candles with! But I also dont want to give her a piece of cupcake for her birthday!" I said in my mind as I ran for about 1 mile to Akihabara.
Upon reaching the place so called "wonderzone" by many people for its addicting cultures, products and beauty, I aimed my eyes at the nearest bakery I could find,
"where is it...where is it?" I kept on mumbling to myself as I searched, then I saw it, a place not so far, only about 50 metres away, and what seemed like a fancy bakery.
I quickly ran to the place without thinking of my stamina, and as I reached the place, I ran out of breath.
"excuse me miss is there anything I could help you with?" the one of the bakery waitress asked me kindly
"huff...huff...huff" I panted in exhaustion, "please just give me a minute...I need to...huff...catch my breath first" I said while still panting, not to mention the sun is shining brighter as the day goes by, and I'm starting to sweat like crazy
After catching by breath I replied to the waitress "yeah, I actually would like to buy a birthday cake, can you recommend a good one?" the waitress then lead my inside the bakery and showed me these wonderful cakes decorated with various ornaments, I stared at awe at every piece of cakes that they have.
But from all the cakes I saw, one cake catches my eye the most, it was a chocolate cake, with green tea frosting, giving it an army-like feeling, not to mention its big size and nice smell
"it looks like an army's uniform! Sayuri-chan will LOVE this!" again I mumbled to myself as I attached my face to the bakery's display glass.
"how much for this one?" I asked the waitress, "the price is already being displayed too" she replied with a smile, I looked back to the cake and saw the price tag listed right below.
"green tea black forest, se..." I stopped reading for a moment, the moment I saw that price tag was the moment I can hear my wallets screaming in pain, "se-se-SEVEN THOUSAND YEN!?" I screamed accidentally in the bakery, other customers and employee were looking at me! man, I felt so embarrassed back then.
After I humbly apologize to the store for my rudeness I looked at my almost-empty wallet, 3 pieces of 1000 yens, that's nowhere near enough for the cake, I decided to take a look around once more for a cake that fits my budget.
"it doesn't matter if I dont eat tomorrow, as long as I don't let Sayuri-chan down!" I said to myself to boost my cake searching mood. But after 5 munities of searching ALL that the bakery has, I admit defeat. All the cakes here is worth at LEAST 5000 yen each! and the one that I saw earlier turns out to be one of the cheap one's! The one that I saw later were much more expensive, some even cost twice the amount of money you'll need for a µ's Bluray disk!
I then left the bakery without purchasing any cakes...I felt terrible. After that I endlessly searched Akihabara for another bakery but I couldn't find a good one, even if I do find one most of the cakes has been sold out for some reason, probably my bad luck.
I then decided to just go home again, maybe my mom will know what to do, but its already 3 pm now, how am I supposed to make a cake and decorate it in time for Sayuri-chan's birthday, AND study 2 chapters of history for exam tomorrow?
But on my way home I found a rather interesting place, it's what seems to be half house and half shop, "Homura sweets" is written on the sign board, I don't know if a sweets shop sells birthday cake or not, but even if they do, why would they? But as my last attempt to get a cake, I ended up visiting anyways.
I opened the door and the shop bell rang, "excuse me..." I said as I entered, then I looked around the place, its a traditional styled shop but still with great ornaments, the sweet smell of red bean paste could be sniffed from the entrance of the shop.
"ahh! Welcome to Homura!" a voice yelled from the cash register, I quickly turned my head to the person and for the second time of the day I was starstrucked, the girl wearing an apron in front of me, munching on a bread while tying up her ginger coloured hair in a side tail, this person must be...
"Ko-Ko-Kosaka Honoka!?" and for the second time dof the day I shouted at a shop/
"HAH!...wha-what is it?" she got surprised with my shout and stumbelled on her words.
I quickly went to the cash register to get a closer look, I checked everything, and there's n doubt about it! This person right in front of me I Kosaka Honoka, the leader of the world famous Idol group µ's who won the last Love Live! And beats A-rise in the regional qualifiers!
"you-you're Kosaka Honoka right?" I asked her with my glittering eyes.
"ye-yes I am..." she answered nervously, it seems I have scarred her a bit with my acts
"YAHOO!" for the third time I shouted, but I cant believe my luck! Meeting with a world famous Idol, THE Kosaka Honoka, right here!? Looks like my luck from the bakery is starting to emerge!
After a few seconds of celebration dance I manage to explain my situation and apologize to Honoka for the inconfiniance, and I also managed to introduced mylself to ger. She then told me just to look around the place if there's something I can use for a substitute of a birthday cake. But looks like I used up all my luck meeting Honoka that I couldn't find anythimh good as a substitute, looks like I'll be using a cupcake after all!
I sighed deeply as I tried exiting the shop, but Honoka's voice stopped me, "hey, whats wrong? Did you find the cake you needed?" she asked me, but I just shook my head
"hmm...I see, its to bad that nothing here could be used as a substitute" then she went into deep thoughts, but right after that she snapped her finger and said, "hey Tsukishima-san! Why dont we just make it ourself!? Hihihi!" she then giggled after giving her idea.
"HUH? Are you serious?...No no no I cant possibly take the offer Kosaka-san its just to much!" I tried to decline her offer, but deep down inside I actually wanted to do that, I'm already desperate to find a cake, AND my idol now wants to bake it with me!? what was I thinking rejecting that offer!? Still, what comes out of my mouth is different from my head.
"no, its no trouble at all! You said you're buying it for a friend's birthday tomorrow right? I know how it feels so its no problem! Come on!" she then takes off her apron and left the shop to her little sister and dragged me to the nearest supermarket to shop, I tried to decline her offer many times on the way but her energy is just to much for me to handle.
Upon arriving at the supermarket, we entered and quickly searched for the ingrediants for the cake, we're not looking for anything special, since its just a simple chocolate cake signed "happy birthdday Sayuri-chan" on it.
"yosh! Flours, butter, sugar, strawberry jam, cocoa powder, some cream frosting and milk, chocolate escence for the smell, and eggs, we can just use the eggs at my house so we dont have to spend to much money on the grocery!" said Honoka.
Then we went on the shopping after listing the things we need, and thanks to Honoka's energy we manage to get all the ingredints needed at lighting fast speed! It didn't even take 20 minutes for her to find all the ingrediants, as expected of the daughter of a famous japanese sweets maker, her eyes are trained to hunt down baking ingrediants!
Then we went in line for the cashier, which made me realize one more thing, just how much will all of these cost!? I just remembered that I only bought a miesly 3000 yen here! I began to panic and whispered to Honoka
"Kosaka-san...I'm so sorry to tell you, but I've only got little money to spend here...I dont think we can pay for all these things " I whispered in a guilty tone.
Then she replied to me, "dont worry I've got your back!" then she gave me a thumbs up and smiled, I felt a bit better but guilty at the same time.
Thank God the ingrediants didn't cost so much as there was a discount at the supermarket today, and Honoka didn't have to pay that much extra for the ingrediants.
As soon as we arrived back at the shop, we entered the kitchen and began baking.
"OK! First we mix the butter and the sugar, Yuka-chan, could you please pass me the sugar from the cabinet there?" Honoka asked me
"Oh OK!" I then walked to the cabinet she was pointing at and saw a bottle with and S sign on it, and I assumed it was the sugar so I gave it to her. But then I just realize she called me Yuka-chan instead of my family name
"Ko-Kosaka-san did you just call me Yuka-chan?" I asked nervously, she nooded while putting the sugar in the bowl, "why?" I asked again
"why? Its bacuse we're friend's aren't we!? No need to call friends with family name, hust the first name is fine! You can call me Honoka-chan to if you want!" she said.
I was a bit surprised at how fast she trust people around her, I also fear for her safety if she trusted people to easily, but for now we'll just finish the cake.
"OK...Honoka-chan!" I replied to her with my biggest smile, and she smiled back.
"the next thing's to mix the egg and cocoa powder in the mix, I need to keep stiring so could you crack the egg and put in the cocoa powder for me?" Honoka asked again
"you got it!" I carefully crack one egg after the other into the mix along side the cocoa powder, the dough is now thick.
"uhh...Honoka-chan, isn't the dough a bit too thick now? Its gonna be hard to stir it, what are we going to do now?" I said, I actually have only little to no experiance when it comes to cooking but at least I know if a dough is thick enough!
"hehehe, that's what the milk is for, if the dough is to thick you can just add a little milk into it and stir it to make it less thick and easier to stir" she replied my question.
"ohh...so that's how, baking seems pretty interesting!" I said as I learned baking from Honoka.
"of course it is! My mom said that baking a cake is like making an art sculpture or painting a picture! Basically she said that baking equals art, hehehe" Honoka giggled to herself followed by me.
After the dough is done we put it in 3 different tins and baked them in Honoka's huge oven, that thing could fit myself in there if I squized myself hard enough! We waited 25 minutes for the baking process to finish and carefuly takes out the cakes.
"now its time for my favorite part! Decorating!" Honoka said as she put the last piece of cake in the table.
First we layered the first and second cake with strawberry jam, then we put it untop of each other, we made 3 stacks of cake, and finally we decorate them! I had so much fun decorating with Honoka chan, with the amount of cream frosting we had, we were able to make an army-like cake just like the one I saw earlier, of course its not as good as the one earlier, but this one is definitely better cause we mede it ourselfs!
Night soon came and I need to go home. "thanks for everything today Honoka-chan! You literally saved me today!" I thank her while bowing, and from that day on she bacame my inspiration to become a school idol too.
"its ok! Dont mention it! I like helping out friends so its no problem!" she replied me with her never ending smile. After that we exchanged phone number and I finally went home bringing the cake.
Of course since I didn't contact my parents earlier they were angry at me for not coming home until its late night, I also didn't get to study the exam I was supposed to have tomorrow.
The next day comes at the blink of an eye, the exam was hard but thanks to Sayuri-chan's "help" I manage to at least get the average score, which is still considerably low compared to other school like the UTX academy.
After school me and my classmates manage to pull off the surprise party for Sayuri-chan, I proudly present the cake me and Honoka-chan made yesterday, I told them the story about yesterday but they didn't believe me until I showed them the cake.
"come on Sayuri-chan! You're the birthday girl, go have the first bite off the cake!" I said as I slice a small piece of cake and put it in a plate, then I gave it to her.
"thanks a lot Yuka-chan! You're the best!" she replied to me, then she takes a bite out of the cake, but her reaction wasn't what I was expecting, she pulled this sour face as if she's eaten something salty nd not sweet!
"Sayuri-chan are you OK?" I asked she then points at the cake and yelled "its...salty!"
I was shocked upon hearing that! I tried the cake myself and its true! The cake is indeed salty! But what could have we done wrong yesterday when baking te cake? Only then I remembered! That S signed bottle that I gave Honoka to put in the cake! S doesn't stand for sugar, it stands for salt!